I was home last weekend - although lately, I've thought of Asheboro less and less as "home". The YaYas bought tickets to see the Harry Potter grand finale (see it in 3D), and we had a fine time watching good witches and wizards vanquish the bad.
J.K.Rowling's story is nothing if not about how ordinary people "sort" in the face of corruption and evil in their midst . . . how some rise to the occasion while others sell themselves short - and out. It's packed with very good lessons for children to absorb/digest, and Ms. Rowling earned her kabillion dollars/pounds.
After the movie, someone commented to me that when it came to medicine (and law/journalism) in Asheboro, there were a lot of parallels between my experience and Harry's . . .
. . . except I had no Dumbledore - nor Snape (Alan Rickman deserves an Oscar nod) - to watch over me, advise me or protect me.
Make no mistake, Asheboro, North Carolina is well-stocked with snakes and Voldemorts who prey on the young, the weak, the sick, the apathetic, the ignorant and the just plain stupid.
I am the doctor who lived . . . despite everynastything Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin threw at me.
And that's an accomplishment in and of itself.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Friday, July 08, 2011
Sandhills Update: Bob Morrison And Brooke Schmidly Don't Just Fly Over The Cuckoo's Nest, They Mow It Down
In speaking with lawyers and others familiar with the North Carolina's legal system over the last few months, I've heard a lot of opinions. But the one that is shared by virtually everyone is that legally speaking, Randolph County is a different world. Down is up. Right is left. And there ain't no light in any of the crevices.
There's a reason Randolph Hospital made it a contractual obligation for employed physicians filing any lawsuits relevant to their employment to do so in Randolph County.
The game is fixed to protect Asheboro's big dawgs.
I've never been more sure of that than I am now. We'll get to that.
I got a phone call on July 4th. A friend back home was positively giddy . . . having just read a SCATHING letter-to-the-Courier-Tribune's Editor published in Sunday's paper . . . from a lawyer representing Sandhills Mental Health Center (in Pinehurst). . . addressing a "guest column" written by Randolph Hospital CEO Robert Morrison.
(My friend was laughing uproariously. It was too just good for snail mail, he said . . . or even a FAX. He HAD to read it to me over the phone . . . "I don't know who this guy is, Dr. J, but he RIPPED Morrison a new butthole! It's PRICELESS!)
I've blogged on the "dispute" between Sandhills Mental Health Center and Randolph Hospital before . . . most recently after Morrison appeared before the Randolph County Commissioners requesting that public money reserved to pay for Sandhills' services to Randolph County residents be diverted to Randolph Hospital.
Commissioners have publicly characterized Morrison's request as "dead in the water" because of North Carolina law . . . North Carolina law that Mr. Morrison's lawyer might have familiarized him with before he made his proposal.
I'm told that Morrison back-tracked a little afterwards, saying he was just trying to shed light on a serious problem.
(Several Housecalls readers suggested that the nearly $300,000 be subtracted from Bob's over $700,000 salary & bennies package.)
I've really got to commend Sandhills CEO, Victoria Whitt, both for her stoicism during this onslaught, and for not just rolling over and playing dead/taking Bob's crap. I know Morrison is not used to anyone talking back. Ever since he came to Asheboro in 1993, Morrison hasn't had to digest the word, "NO!", too often.
It's actually not fair to characterize this as a dispute. Bob Morrison is just flat out wrong to be blaming the problem on Sandhills. And his little sound-bite-media-road-show is gearing up to be state-sanctioned extortion.
The state is mediating the fiasco as if there is a real dispute because the truth of why psychiatric patients are in the fix they're in EVERYWHERE has everything to do with failed mental health reform legislated by the state. But Bob painting himself as some kind of Knight of the Psychiatric Round Table is just FICTION.
Bob Morrison is nothing if not a consummate liar. And actually, he's not really all that consummate about the lying. He's just been very well-insulated and protected from the consequences of his actions from almost the day he arrived in Asheboro nearly two decades ago. Unfortunately, in a small pond where the mill-town gods are never wrong, the Randolph Hospital Board of Directors' notion of "oversight" has always and only involved rubber-stamping everything he's ever done . . . no matter how unjust, amoral or illegal.
Bob's "right people", you see.
Toss in all the hob-nobbing at Rotary . . . stir in a local newspaper whose Publisher & Editor would rather chow down the pricey ordurbs at the hospital shin-digs than ask an objective question of any of their "friends" . . . and Randolph Hospital's CEO is coated in some industrial-strength Teflon.
In the interest of full disclosure, I've not been able to find/read Bob's column. As regular readers know, I don't (and WILL NOT EVER after the treatment I & others have received from our local "journalists") subscribe to the local rag whose primary function is to be a cheer-leading newsletter for Asheboro's well-named and well-connected. Moreover, I cannot read the paper online - as the Courier dived behind a pay-wall several months ago.
Before that, I was banned from commenting on stories (free speech in Asheboro is only for those who don't question authority and omnipotence of those who put our town on life support) . . . because my commentary was a bit too hot for certain "right people" to handle.
But I expect the guest column was ripe with Bob's very unique (we'll get to that) perspective on who should be providing/paying for psychiatrists to treat the mentally-ill requiring inpatient admission at his "non-profit" community hospital.
Closely examined (at least more closely examined than the talking heads at WFMY TV tsk-tsking over the indignities suffered by patients and their families will do), Morrison's position seems to be that psychiatric patients in Randolph County should be somebody else's problem. Patients presenting to his hospital in mental health crisis care supposed to be out of sight, and out of mind . . . and their care not out of his pocket. They're supposed to be whizzed in past the ED doors (with and nice bill presented for ED services), and then moved out very quickly - shipped off to facilities in the netherlands more quipped to deal with sick and broken minds.
Sandhills is contracted to provide the screening and triage services necessary to get these patients to the right facility (Randolph ain't it), and from what I've heard through the medical grapevine, they're doing the best they can with what they've got.
If a bed cannot be immediately found, Randolph Hospital itself does not provide psychiatric services for inpatients, and can only "baby-sit" these patients in the ED or holding areas until the state's mental health triage system can evaluate them and find a bed somewhere else.
Moreover, this problem is compounded by the fact that not all psychiatric patients are created psychiatrically or medically equal. Different problems require different approaches - perhaps even different facilities.
(Been there, done that, used to work in an out-of-state big city ED. Psychiatric patients had to wait there too.)
I would submit that if Bob had really CARED about all of this before he started making the rounds in front of the TV cameras, he would have proposed developing a comprehensive psychiatric program and hired psychiatrists to see these patients YEARS ago. He would have contributed to solving the problem - as opposed to threatening to suedthe facilities that cope with it.
The thing is that mental health is not nearly as glitzy or glamorous or lucrative as cancer care in a flashy new buidling - and doesn't rake in nearly as much money.
And/so the FACT is that, although behavioral health IS an integral part of any community's primary care (arguably the job of community hospitals - as opposed to trying to keep up with the medical Jones in Greensboro, Durham, Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem), Bob Morrison never really gave a rat's tail about mental health care in Asheboro & Randolph County . . . at least not before the seriously mentally-ill presenting through his emergency room started taking up beds/space at Randolph Hospital . . . because, in the wake of the decimated landscape left behind by ex-Governor-now-convicted-felon, Mike Sleazely's, ill-conceived 2001 "Mental Health Reform Act", there are not enough beds in psychiatric facilites to go around.
North Carolina downsized its in-patient system (closing about half of its facilities) without and before successfully building the community out-patient infrastructures that were supposed to replace the care offered by hospitals.
In other words, it's a SYSTEMIC PROBLEM born of BAD POLICY born of BAD POLITICS (I cannot resist the urge to note that it all occurred under a Democratic administration).
Translation: NOT SANDHILLS FAULT.
But Bob needs a demon, if he's going to play avenging angel. Even better if he's demonizing a girl. They're far easier to portray as "wack-jobs".
Things are really bad for psych patients in North Carolina - a genuine crisis of daunting proportions - mostly because of the Easley administration's "fix" that wasn't (kinda what I'm expecting from Obamacare but that's neither here nor there).
However, a lack of inpatient beds is a huge nationwide problem - getting worse in the economic downturn.
Nothing about what is going on in Asheboro is really unique, and Bob Morrison is no champion of the tired, the poor and the mentally-ill.
He's actually Nurse Ratched.
[As long as he's pointing fingers, as I understand it, Bob is a BIG Democrat and was a BIG supporter of exp-Governor Sleazely's administration and policies. What goes around.]
Once again, reality is that Bob Morrison was too busy building cancer centers that Asheboro didn't really need (my apologies to Sir Buzz Armfield of the Asheboro Armfields who gave one million dollars to that center), and running off whistle-blowing physicians who didn't "fit in" to his grands plans for remodelling Asheboro's medical landscape in his carpet-bagging image (or rather, some over-paid consultant's image, because Bob Morrison never had an original idea in his life) to care very much about mental health . . .
. . . until it started messing with his bottom line and his BONUSES.
Except for what has quietly poured into his own pockets . . . and those of his executive staff, consultants and lawyers . . . Bob Morrison follows the money.
And he's never wanted anyone else following where it went. That's why he can't cough up old tax returns on his "non-profits" . . . or comprehensive lists of his Board members and/or Corporate membership.
Moreover, the intrepid reporters at the Courier Tribune, despite their occasional posturing-to-the-contrary will not EVER apply the heat to make him.
Since 2010, Bob has been writing letters to state officials, and making appearances before County Commissioners, and postering on TV, bad-mouthing Sandhills Center (a facility that handles psychiatric admissions for eight - yes, chickadees, count 'em - EIGHT counties . . . namely Randolph, Richmond, Anson, Moore, Montgomery, Lee, Hoke and Harnett) because he says they are not in compliance with North Carolina Administrative Code and General Statute.
Now, Bob is FULL OF MECONIUM (it's a nice, almost sterile word for something else) on that point. But if you think this physician is too much of a "disgruntled ex-employee" to be credible, don't just take if from me . . . take it from the N.C. Department of Human Services and the N.C. Attorney General (not that I'm a big fan of either) . . . both of whom have summarily dismissed Bob's claims in advisory opinions.
But even if he didn't have feces coming out his ears, ROBERT MORRISON WOULD KNOW ALL ABOUT NOT BEING COMPLIANT WITH NORTH CAROLINA LAW.
This blog exists because, in my book, Bob and his Vice President, Steven Eblin are unconvicted felons who repeatedly lied under Oath about the "confidentiality" of public records containing financial information relevant to my damages claim . . . .
. . . you know, the damages claimed in the long-ago lawsuit I filed after Bob and Steve fired this ex-public-servant for saving a critically-ill newborn baby's life and reporting what happened to peer review . . .
. . . the lawsuit that was supposed to see me vindicated, and give me the opportunity to rebuild what Randolph Hospital's "evil twins" so maliciously & methodically destroyed.
Given what was in those public records that Bob and Steve and Randolph Hospital's lawyers withheld while negotiating with Steve Schmidly, the monetary damages awarded at settlement (as a number of lawyers have pointed out, I did technically "win" all aspects of the legal battle) were a fraction of what they should have been . . . after three years of hard work flushed down the toilet and a reputation decimated - followed by almost three more years of brutal litigation.
In this instance, it was not about ensuring good patient care, but (1) keeping the Pediatric "business" under his control . . . and (2) saving some money when he had to own up.
Alas, in North Carolina, Pediatricians really ARE "a dime a dozen". Non-profiteering hospital executives, embracing perjury, contempt and fraud as a means to a bad-faith end, are no big deal to our District Attorney, State Bar or Attorney General. Public servants screwed-over in said service are SOL. Everybody lies in Court. It's no biggie.
(Like I said. Not a big fan of Law-&-Order Roy Cooper.)
My dearly-departed Pops, who along with my sainted Mother was forced to absorb and endure every humiliation inflicted by these goons-in-suits right along with me, never thought that Steve Schmidly was as negligent or stupid as the settlement he negotiated ultimately proved him to be.
Nope. Pops ALWAYS believed in his bones that my Randolph County law firm sold me out.
When I finally sat down with my legal files, and figured out just how thoroughly I had been swindled in the settlement, and confronted both Schmidly and Morrison, the Bobber took great pleasure in taunting me in e-mails. He and Steve clinked glasses at various "right people" functions, and he'd give Schmid my regards.
I still had a hard time believing Schmid could have betrayed me like that.
But as of July 4th, 2011, if I ever had any doubt that my lawyer took me for a great big ride, I don't now. For I am informed that, in this dispute with Sandhills, Bob Morrison is being represented NOT by my old nemesis Robert Wilson, but by Steve's daughter, Brooke Schmidly.
(I really didn't think Mr. Wilson would be so moronic as to condone a hospital CEO he represented publicly dissing another CEO/facility doing the very best they can under circumstances way beyond their control . . . particularly when the legal leg Morrison is standing on is made of glass. I cannot imagine this is playing well in Raleigh . . . or even among Bob's compatriots at the N.C. Hospital Association.)
To refresh reader's memories, Brooke is the faux-homegirl (raised in Kernersville) who, along with Bob and her Father, seduced the citizenry of Asheboro into believing that being a "family-friendly", "Mayberryish" burg wasn't enough any more. Being "dry" wasn't economically marketable . Alcohol sales would save the town.
Asheboro had a chance to remain unique and be special. That's all gone now.
Brooke Schmidly now sits on the Alcohol Beverage Control Board . . . and there are rumors she has higher political aspirations.
In stark contrast to Dr. Mary Johnson, whose last name wasn't Redding . . . or McCrary . . . or Bossong . . . or Armfield (sorry, Buzzy) . . . our Miss Brooke has been getting the royal treatment since she came "home".
Her Daddy smoothed the way.
[As aside, a "non-profit" hospital CEO (whose town has long been identified as a high intensity drug-trafficking area) endorsing alcohol sales in his previously-dry city (Bob said he needed to have it in order to recruit doctors) is incomprehensible to me as a matter of improving the community's general health . . . particularly its MENTAL HEALTH (kinda relevant to what we're discussing here). But I bet all of the associated alcohol-related pathology has sure kicked up the hospital'$ revenue. All of Bob's "concern" for those suffering from alcohol dependence and addiction is first-class hypocrisy.]
I'm digressing. In moving on to the meat of this post, I actually don't have to exert any energy at all making mince-meat of Brooke Schmidly. A lawyer from Pinehurst named Thomas Van Camp has done it for me. His letter to the Courier Tribune, published below, is a work of art.
Without mentioning Brooke's name, he manages to makes her out to be just as much a self-serving fountain of mis-information as her client. A chip off the old block, she is.
The Letter is entitled, "Time To Set The Record Straight"
My name is Thomas Van Camp and I am an attorney practicing law in Moore County, North
Carolina. I represent Sandhills Center. For the last several months, I have followed the conduct and comments of Mr. Robert E. Morrison, the President of Randolph Hospital.
In his recent guest column, he makes numerous statements which are both misleading and inaccurate. Mr. Morrison’s failure to acknowledge the true facts and his self-righteous attempts to politicize this issue for his own gain are disturbing.
For those interested, here are the facts:
Over the last 8 months, 71% of the individuals (with psychiatric diagnoses) presenting to the Randolph ED have been discharged with an appropriate disposition (either inpatient or outpatient) within 48 hours of admission. Another 23%, who have required hospitalization at the state facilities, have waited between 48 and 120 hours (5 days), due to no beds availability at the state facilities - they are placed on the state waiting list and then we are called when a bed opens up. 6% of the individuals have had waits of over 5 days - the majority of these have medical issues that need to be addressed prior to a psychiatric facility admitting them - i.e. they have to be treated medically and then medically cleared.
Therapeutic Alternatives Qualified Professionals see all of these individuals and make disposition arrangements, with the telephonic backup of licensed professionals and psychiatrists.
In June of 2010, Mr. Morrison sent a letter to Victoria Whitt, the CEO of Sandhills
There's a reason Randolph Hospital made it a contractual obligation for employed physicians filing any lawsuits relevant to their employment to do so in Randolph County.
The game is fixed to protect Asheboro's big dawgs.
I've never been more sure of that than I am now. We'll get to that.
I got a phone call on July 4th. A friend back home was positively giddy . . . having just read a SCATHING letter-to-the-Courier-Tribune's Editor published in Sunday's paper . . . from a lawyer representing Sandhills Mental Health Center (in Pinehurst). . . addressing a "guest column" written by Randolph Hospital CEO Robert Morrison.
(My friend was laughing uproariously. It was too just good for snail mail, he said . . . or even a FAX. He HAD to read it to me over the phone . . . "I don't know who this guy is, Dr. J, but he RIPPED Morrison a new butthole! It's PRICELESS!)
I've blogged on the "dispute" between Sandhills Mental Health Center and Randolph Hospital before . . . most recently after Morrison appeared before the Randolph County Commissioners requesting that public money reserved to pay for Sandhills' services to Randolph County residents be diverted to Randolph Hospital.
Commissioners have publicly characterized Morrison's request as "dead in the water" because of North Carolina law . . . North Carolina law that Mr. Morrison's lawyer might have familiarized him with before he made his proposal.
I'm told that Morrison back-tracked a little afterwards, saying he was just trying to shed light on a serious problem.
(Several Housecalls readers suggested that the nearly $300,000 be subtracted from Bob's over $700,000 salary & bennies package.)
I've really got to commend Sandhills CEO, Victoria Whitt, both for her stoicism during this onslaught, and for not just rolling over and playing dead/taking Bob's crap. I know Morrison is not used to anyone talking back. Ever since he came to Asheboro in 1993, Morrison hasn't had to digest the word, "NO!", too often.
It's actually not fair to characterize this as a dispute. Bob Morrison is just flat out wrong to be blaming the problem on Sandhills. And his little sound-bite-media-road-show is gearing up to be state-sanctioned extortion.
The state is mediating the fiasco as if there is a real dispute because the truth of why psychiatric patients are in the fix they're in EVERYWHERE has everything to do with failed mental health reform legislated by the state. But Bob painting himself as some kind of Knight of the Psychiatric Round Table is just FICTION.
Bob Morrison is nothing if not a consummate liar. And actually, he's not really all that consummate about the lying. He's just been very well-insulated and protected from the consequences of his actions from almost the day he arrived in Asheboro nearly two decades ago. Unfortunately, in a small pond where the mill-town gods are never wrong, the Randolph Hospital Board of Directors' notion of "oversight" has always and only involved rubber-stamping everything he's ever done . . . no matter how unjust, amoral or illegal.
Bob's "right people", you see.
Toss in all the hob-nobbing at Rotary . . . stir in a local newspaper whose Publisher & Editor would rather chow down the pricey ordurbs at the hospital shin-digs than ask an objective question of any of their "friends" . . . and Randolph Hospital's CEO is coated in some industrial-strength Teflon.
In the interest of full disclosure, I've not been able to find/read Bob's column. As regular readers know, I don't (and WILL NOT EVER after the treatment I & others have received from our local "journalists") subscribe to the local rag whose primary function is to be a cheer-leading newsletter for Asheboro's well-named and well-connected. Moreover, I cannot read the paper online - as the Courier dived behind a pay-wall several months ago.
Before that, I was banned from commenting on stories (free speech in Asheboro is only for those who don't question authority and omnipotence of those who put our town on life support) . . . because my commentary was a bit too hot for certain "right people" to handle.
But I expect the guest column was ripe with Bob's very unique (we'll get to that) perspective on who should be providing/paying for psychiatrists to treat the mentally-ill requiring inpatient admission at his "non-profit" community hospital.
Closely examined (at least more closely examined than the talking heads at WFMY TV tsk-tsking over the indignities suffered by patients and their families will do), Morrison's position seems to be that psychiatric patients in Randolph County should be somebody else's problem. Patients presenting to his hospital in mental health crisis care supposed to be out of sight, and out of mind . . . and their care not out of his pocket. They're supposed to be whizzed in past the ED doors (with and nice bill presented for ED services), and then moved out very quickly - shipped off to facilities in the netherlands more quipped to deal with sick and broken minds.
Sandhills is contracted to provide the screening and triage services necessary to get these patients to the right facility (Randolph ain't it), and from what I've heard through the medical grapevine, they're doing the best they can with what they've got.
If a bed cannot be immediately found, Randolph Hospital itself does not provide psychiatric services for inpatients, and can only "baby-sit" these patients in the ED or holding areas until the state's mental health triage system can evaluate them and find a bed somewhere else.
Moreover, this problem is compounded by the fact that not all psychiatric patients are created psychiatrically or medically equal. Different problems require different approaches - perhaps even different facilities.
(Been there, done that, used to work in an out-of-state big city ED. Psychiatric patients had to wait there too.)
I would submit that if Bob had really CARED about all of this before he started making the rounds in front of the TV cameras, he would have proposed developing a comprehensive psychiatric program and hired psychiatrists to see these patients YEARS ago. He would have contributed to solving the problem - as opposed to threatening to suedthe facilities that cope with it.
The thing is that mental health is not nearly as glitzy or glamorous or lucrative as cancer care in a flashy new buidling - and doesn't rake in nearly as much money.
And/so the FACT is that, although behavioral health IS an integral part of any community's primary care (arguably the job of community hospitals - as opposed to trying to keep up with the medical Jones in Greensboro, Durham, Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem), Bob Morrison never really gave a rat's tail about mental health care in Asheboro & Randolph County . . . at least not before the seriously mentally-ill presenting through his emergency room started taking up beds/space at Randolph Hospital . . . because, in the wake of the decimated landscape left behind by ex-Governor-now-convicted-felon, Mike Sleazely's, ill-conceived 2001 "Mental Health Reform Act", there are not enough beds in psychiatric facilites to go around.
North Carolina downsized its in-patient system (closing about half of its facilities) without and before successfully building the community out-patient infrastructures that were supposed to replace the care offered by hospitals.
In other words, it's a SYSTEMIC PROBLEM born of BAD POLICY born of BAD POLITICS (I cannot resist the urge to note that it all occurred under a Democratic administration).
Translation: NOT SANDHILLS FAULT.
But Bob needs a demon, if he's going to play avenging angel. Even better if he's demonizing a girl. They're far easier to portray as "wack-jobs".
Things are really bad for psych patients in North Carolina - a genuine crisis of daunting proportions - mostly because of the Easley administration's "fix" that wasn't (kinda what I'm expecting from Obamacare but that's neither here nor there).
However, a lack of inpatient beds is a huge nationwide problem - getting worse in the economic downturn.
Nothing about what is going on in Asheboro is really unique, and Bob Morrison is no champion of the tired, the poor and the mentally-ill.
He's actually Nurse Ratched.
[As long as he's pointing fingers, as I understand it, Bob is a BIG Democrat and was a BIG supporter of exp-Governor Sleazely's administration and policies. What goes around.]
Once again, reality is that Bob Morrison was too busy building cancer centers that Asheboro didn't really need (my apologies to Sir Buzz Armfield of the Asheboro Armfields who gave one million dollars to that center), and running off whistle-blowing physicians who didn't "fit in" to his grands plans for remodelling Asheboro's medical landscape in his carpet-bagging image (or rather, some over-paid consultant's image, because Bob Morrison never had an original idea in his life) to care very much about mental health . . .
. . . until it started messing with his bottom line and his BONUSES.
Except for what has quietly poured into his own pockets . . . and those of his executive staff, consultants and lawyers . . . Bob Morrison follows the money.
And he's never wanted anyone else following where it went. That's why he can't cough up old tax returns on his "non-profits" . . . or comprehensive lists of his Board members and/or Corporate membership.
Moreover, the intrepid reporters at the Courier Tribune, despite their occasional posturing-to-the-contrary will not EVER apply the heat to make him.
Since 2010, Bob has been writing letters to state officials, and making appearances before County Commissioners, and postering on TV, bad-mouthing Sandhills Center (a facility that handles psychiatric admissions for eight - yes, chickadees, count 'em - EIGHT counties . . . namely Randolph, Richmond, Anson, Moore, Montgomery, Lee, Hoke and Harnett) because he says they are not in compliance with North Carolina Administrative Code and General Statute.
Now, Bob is FULL OF MECONIUM (it's a nice, almost sterile word for something else) on that point. But if you think this physician is too much of a "disgruntled ex-employee" to be credible, don't just take if from me . . . take it from the N.C. Department of Human Services and the N.C. Attorney General (not that I'm a big fan of either) . . . both of whom have summarily dismissed Bob's claims in advisory opinions.
But even if he didn't have feces coming out his ears, ROBERT MORRISON WOULD KNOW ALL ABOUT NOT BEING COMPLIANT WITH NORTH CAROLINA LAW.
This blog exists because, in my book, Bob and his Vice President, Steven Eblin are unconvicted felons who repeatedly lied under Oath about the "confidentiality" of public records containing financial information relevant to my damages claim . . . .
. . . you know, the damages claimed in the long-ago lawsuit I filed after Bob and Steve fired this ex-public-servant for saving a critically-ill newborn baby's life and reporting what happened to peer review . . .
. . . the lawsuit that was supposed to see me vindicated, and give me the opportunity to rebuild what Randolph Hospital's "evil twins" so maliciously & methodically destroyed.
Given what was in those public records that Bob and Steve and Randolph Hospital's lawyers withheld while negotiating with Steve Schmidly, the monetary damages awarded at settlement (as a number of lawyers have pointed out, I did technically "win" all aspects of the legal battle) were a fraction of what they should have been . . . after three years of hard work flushed down the toilet and a reputation decimated - followed by almost three more years of brutal litigation.
In this instance, it was not about ensuring good patient care, but (1) keeping the Pediatric "business" under his control . . . and (2) saving some money when he had to own up.
Alas, in North Carolina, Pediatricians really ARE "a dime a dozen". Non-profiteering hospital executives, embracing perjury, contempt and fraud as a means to a bad-faith end, are no big deal to our District Attorney, State Bar or Attorney General. Public servants screwed-over in said service are SOL. Everybody lies in Court. It's no biggie.
(Like I said. Not a big fan of Law-&-Order Roy Cooper.)
My dearly-departed Pops, who along with my sainted Mother was forced to absorb and endure every humiliation inflicted by these goons-in-suits right along with me, never thought that Steve Schmidly was as negligent or stupid as the settlement he negotiated ultimately proved him to be.
Nope. Pops ALWAYS believed in his bones that my Randolph County law firm sold me out.
When I finally sat down with my legal files, and figured out just how thoroughly I had been swindled in the settlement, and confronted both Schmidly and Morrison, the Bobber took great pleasure in taunting me in e-mails. He and Steve clinked glasses at various "right people" functions, and he'd give Schmid my regards.
I still had a hard time believing Schmid could have betrayed me like that.
But as of July 4th, 2011, if I ever had any doubt that my lawyer took me for a great big ride, I don't now. For I am informed that, in this dispute with Sandhills, Bob Morrison is being represented NOT by my old nemesis Robert Wilson, but by Steve's daughter, Brooke Schmidly.
(I really didn't think Mr. Wilson would be so moronic as to condone a hospital CEO he represented publicly dissing another CEO/facility doing the very best they can under circumstances way beyond their control . . . particularly when the legal leg Morrison is standing on is made of glass. I cannot imagine this is playing well in Raleigh . . . or even among Bob's compatriots at the N.C. Hospital Association.)
To refresh reader's memories, Brooke is the faux-homegirl (raised in Kernersville) who, along with Bob and her Father, seduced the citizenry of Asheboro into believing that being a "family-friendly", "Mayberryish" burg wasn't enough any more. Being "dry" wasn't economically marketable . Alcohol sales would save the town.
Asheboro had a chance to remain unique and be special. That's all gone now.
Brooke Schmidly now sits on the Alcohol Beverage Control Board . . . and there are rumors she has higher political aspirations.
In stark contrast to Dr. Mary Johnson, whose last name wasn't Redding . . . or McCrary . . . or Bossong . . . or Armfield (sorry, Buzzy) . . . our Miss Brooke has been getting the royal treatment since she came "home".
Her Daddy smoothed the way.
[As aside, a "non-profit" hospital CEO (whose town has long been identified as a high intensity drug-trafficking area) endorsing alcohol sales in his previously-dry city (Bob said he needed to have it in order to recruit doctors) is incomprehensible to me as a matter of improving the community's general health . . . particularly its MENTAL HEALTH (kinda relevant to what we're discussing here). But I bet all of the associated alcohol-related pathology has sure kicked up the hospital'$ revenue. All of Bob's "concern" for those suffering from alcohol dependence and addiction is first-class hypocrisy.]
I'm digressing. In moving on to the meat of this post, I actually don't have to exert any energy at all making mince-meat of Brooke Schmidly. A lawyer from Pinehurst named Thomas Van Camp has done it for me. His letter to the Courier Tribune, published below, is a work of art.
Without mentioning Brooke's name, he manages to makes her out to be just as much a self-serving fountain of mis-information as her client. A chip off the old block, she is.
The Letter is entitled, "Time To Set The Record Straight"
My name is Thomas Van Camp and I am an attorney practicing law in Moore County, North
Carolina. I represent Sandhills Center. For the last several months, I have followed the conduct and comments of Mr. Robert E. Morrison, the President of Randolph Hospital.
In his recent guest column, he makes numerous statements which are both misleading and inaccurate. Mr. Morrison’s failure to acknowledge the true facts and his self-righteous attempts to politicize this issue for his own gain are disturbing.
For those interested, here are the facts:
Over the last 8 months, 71% of the individuals (with psychiatric diagnoses) presenting to the Randolph ED have been discharged with an appropriate disposition (either inpatient or outpatient) within 48 hours of admission. Another 23%, who have required hospitalization at the state facilities, have waited between 48 and 120 hours (5 days), due to no beds availability at the state facilities - they are placed on the state waiting list and then we are called when a bed opens up. 6% of the individuals have had waits of over 5 days - the majority of these have medical issues that need to be addressed prior to a psychiatric facility admitting them - i.e. they have to be treated medically and then medically cleared.
Therapeutic Alternatives Qualified Professionals see all of these individuals and make disposition arrangements, with the telephonic backup of licensed professionals and psychiatrists.
In June of 2010, Mr. Morrison sent a letter to Victoria Whitt, the CEO of Sandhills
Center, claiming that Sandhills Center was not complying with the North Carolina Administrative Code or the North Carolina General Statutes in connection with providing services to the mentally ill in Randolph County.
In his letter, Mr. Morrison cited the same statutes referenced in his guest column.
Sandhills Center denied the allegations contained in Mr. Morrison’s letter citing the fact that it
maintained a 24 hour, 7 day a week crisis response service through an entity called Therapeutic Alternatives.
In an effort to educate Mr. Morrison, Sandhills Center requested that the North Carolina
In his letter, Mr. Morrison cited the same statutes referenced in his guest column.
Sandhills Center denied the allegations contained in Mr. Morrison’s letter citing the fact that it
maintained a 24 hour, 7 day a week crisis response service through an entity called Therapeutic Alternatives.
In an effort to educate Mr. Morrison, Sandhills Center requested that the North Carolina
Department of Health and Human Services review Mr. Morrison’s letter, as well as the services being provided by Sandhills Center, in order to determine whether or not Sandhills Center was in fact complying with North Carolina law. Sandhills Center received a two page response from the Department of Health and Human Services, which rejected Mr. Morrison’s position.
This two page letter was provided to Mr. Morrison and his attorney.
Apparently still not satisfied, Mr. Morrison continued to write letters to Sandhills Center making the same baseless claim that Sandhills Center was not complying with North Carolina law.
Again, in an effort to address Mr. Morrison’s concerns, Sandhills Center requested that the North Carolina Attorney General’s office review the matter and provide a legal opinion regarding whether or not the services provided by Sandhills Center in fact complied with North Carolina law.
On April 8, 2011, Special Deputy Attorney General, Richard Slipsky issued an informal opinion/advisory letter which rejected out of hand Mr. Morrison’s position and advised that Sandhills Center was in fact complying with North Carolina law.
Notwithstanding the fact that both the Department of Health and Human Services and the North Carolina Attorney General’s office had opined that Sandhills Center was complying with North Carolina law, Mr. Morrison threatened to sue Sandhills Center, blindly insisting that his position was legally correct.
In an effort to avoid potential litigation, which would both be frivolous and costly, Sandhills Center suggested that the parties engage in pre-litigation mediation in an effort to resolve their differences. The parties selected former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Henry Frye to preside over the mediation.
The mediation was held on April 15, 2011. Representatives of the North Carolina Attorney General’s office also attended the Mediation.
Although the mediation did not yield an immediate resolution, there were attempts on both sides to understand and appreciate the others’ concerns.
Notwithstanding the fact that Sandhills Center was complying with all of the mandates of North Carolina law, and in an effort to appease Mr. Morrison, Sandhills Center ultimately agreed to contract with Therapeutic Alternatives to provide a licensed psychiatrist to make daily rounds Monday through Friday in both the emergency room and in the hospital’s transitional unit where patients are awaiting transfer to an inpatient facility.
This service would be in addition to the 24-7 Mobile Crisis Team already in place in Randolph County.
Sandhills agreed to fund an on-site psychiatrist because, at the mediation, this was clearly Mr. Morrison’s main concern.
On May 5, 2011, Sandhills Center informed Mr. Morrison and the Hospital’s attorney, in writing, of its intent to provide this service effective July 1, 2011.
Sandhills Center was able to fund the on site psychiatrist by electing not to compensate the emergency room physicians who were providing assessments. The thought was that this would not negatively affect patient care because the emergency physicians were being compensated by Sandhills Center for services that they were already required to perform under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (“EMTALA”).
EMTALA requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare regardless of citizenship or ability to pay.
Thus, effective July 1, 2011 mentally ill patients in Randolph Countywill have the benefit of (1) a 24-7 Mobile Crisis Team which includes licenses qualified professionals, (2) the same emergency room service previously provided by emergency room physicians and staff and (3) an on site psychiatrist making rounds through the emergency department and transitional unit Monday through Friday.
The foregoing represents just some of the facts that Mr. Morrison neglected to include in his self-serving guest column.
It is unfortunate that Mr. Morrison continues to publicly attack Sandhills Center in light of the fact that, according to the North Carolina Attorney General’s office, Sandhills Center was not required to make any concessions in response to Mr. Morrison’s demands.
Although it is difficult to comprehend Mr. Morrison’s true motives, perhaps it has more to do with the bottom line than patient care. In fact, Sandhills Center’s decision to provide a psychiatrist to make daily rounds Monday through Friday will, according to Mr. Morrison, result in income to the hospital on an annual basis of approximately $300,000.00.
Perhaps Mr. Morrison is attempting to sway public opinion in the event that the hospital elects to sue Sandhills Center.
In any event, if Mr. Morrison spent less time grand standing in front of the County Commissioners, finger pointing and writing guest columns, he might realize Sandhills Center gave him exactly what he requested.
Thomas Van Camp
It's actually not difficult for some of us to discern Bob Morrison's motives, Mr. Van Camp. But we're covered in the scars he inflicted. He would lie to his Mother if it put money in his pocket.
He's already put his hand on a Bible and repeatedly sworn lie after lie . . . with even the the presumed Wrath of the Lord God Himself failing to deter him. God knows that the State of North Carolina will impose no such sanction.
What Bob is doing now is purely and simply about putting money in his institution's pocket - which in turn, ultimately means more money in his pocket. I very strongly suspect that all of this public posturing has something to do with getting a piece of the action . . . in other words, eventually extorting external funding for an inpatient unit at Randolph. It's right out of the progressive playbook.
"You never let a serious crisis go to waste . . . it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. " -Rahm Emanuel
Let me be clear. Providing inpatient Psychiatric services in Asheboro is actually not a bad idea. But I would just prefer that it happen after an honest, open dialogue (not gonna happen in a town whose newspaper has dived behind a pay wall and only sucks at one teat), as opposed to predicated on a pack of lies that assigns blame to the very people and institutions who've been doing the hard work all along.
I would also not worry too much about public opinion, Mr. Van Camp. It doesn't count for much in a Court of law (witness the farce of justice that will set Casey Anthony free in a matter of days). And take it from the homegirl who might as well been a mugging victim in New York City, as long as their own applecarts are not jostled too much, most people in Asheboro don't get worked up over anything that might actually embody small town values.
I really love the way that Mr. Van Camp turns the tables on the Emergency Department physicians who have no doubt done most of the whining because Psych Patients are parked in their money-making beds (they can't evaluate as many faux heart attacks).
"You want our already over-burdened-facility-not-really-at-fault-in-this-mess to fund psychiatrists that your way-overpaid CEO should have thought about recruiting a long time ago . . . as a very basic community service? Fine. We're already on a shoe-string. And EMTALA allows us to cut our own losses by letting your Emergency Department doctors EAT IT . . . instead of paying them for work you admit they cannot do.
I believe it's called an "unfunded mandate", Bob. Take it up with your hero, Obama.
(Beautiful.)
I wonder how his ED physicians feel about Bob now (this is one instance in which I don't feel sorry for the doctors at all - mostly because it's some of the same crew who sat around deaf, dumb and blind while I got stomped)? He's not so much the hero, I expect.
In closing, I saw Bob fairly recently. We live in the same neighborhood (well, he lives there - I more or less vacation there), and starting out on my last trip back down East, I saw him in the cool-down phase of a run.
He saw me too, and GLARED his worst "evil-Bob" glare as I drove past him.
Like I care.
I mean, PUHLEASE. I honestly don't know why this poser is glaring at me . . . after all, I'm the homegirl who, for nearly fourteen years, has had to drive hours in order to work (after the great blackball) . . . the one who takes the killer-call no one else will touch in an attempt to stabilize her financial situation - a situation that will NEVER recover from what Bob Morrison and Randolph did.
In stark contrast, Morrison is the "public servant" that Randolph Hospital pays over $700,000/year . . . yet We-the-Gullible public are supposed to believe he cannot afford to pay for his own psychiatrists.''
(I wonder how the residents of the seven other counties Sandhills serves feel about this deal?).
One of my friends asked me if, while on the receiving end of one of those glares, I'm ever tempted to turn Bob into a hood ornament.
I told her, no.
Bob Morrison is so not worth it. He's a giant pustule on the butt of Asheboro. He's MRSA. It's just going to take the right antibiotic (i.e. lawyer) to get rid of him.
(How's that as a reflection of my mental health?)
And my advice to Mr. Van Camp and Sandhills the next time Bob flexes his little legal winkie up and down, or our Miss Brooke presumes to lecture Sandhills on following the law (it it were not so pathetic it would be funny) would be this . . .
. . . "Hey Bob, we've been doing some background research on a legal case you and your current law firm were involved in several years back.
You remember the case . . . you DESTROYED the practice of a homegrown Pediatrician after she defied your minions' written threats in order to save a baby's life - and then reported what happened to peer review. It's a CLASSIC whistle-blower scenario (never mind that your current legal counsel's Daddy didn't work very hard to hammer that point home). In doing this fairly dastardly deed, you breached a Federal service agreement - bastardizing the intent of the public service program that brought the doctor home, depriving patients/their parents of a doctor they trusted and pouring taxpayer's money down the drain.
We're kinda wondering, Bob, how exactly did good patient care factor in to all of that? Did you really want this Pediatrician to roll over and go back to sleep and let that child die? Or keep her mouth shut while a doctor YOU falsely advertised as having expertise in Neonatology that he did not possess, kept prancing around the hospital as some kind of specialist?
But you weren't done pounding, were you Bob? After destroying any chance she had for staying in town, you tried to bully this lady doctor into silence, by SLAPP-suing her for telling the truth to the government she served. That's pretty damned low-ball, Bob. Who was paying for your lawyers as they warped the law and used it like a sledgehammer?
We've been looking into some of the allegations this lady doctor has made online (about the bold-face lies you told, and being swindled at settlement) . . . allegations you've not had the decency or guts to address in any way . . . allegations that the same newspaper letting you write your guest columns has determinedly pretended do not exist.
The thing is, Bob, N.C. General Statutes and U.S./IRS Codes are VERY clear on public records being made available to the public. It sure looks like you treated the Court pretty contemptuously when you LIED UNDER OATH in discovery . . . and defied a judge's order . . . and negotiated with the physician victim of your malfeasance in very BAD FAITH.
Perjury is a fairly serious charge.
I mean, my God, Bob. You wanna talk about mental health? It would be AMAZING if this doctor did not suffer from PTSD and depression. You did the worst kind of number on her!
The N.C. Attorney General is in the next room. How's about we go discuss it with him?"
As my good friend, Buzz Armfield said when all of this was brought to his attention (that's after he could catch his breath from hysterial laughter over the absurdity of it all), "Mary, God bless him, your Daddy was right".
Bob and Brooke aren't strange bedfellows at all. They're just bedfellows in the Cuckoo's Nest of
This two page letter was provided to Mr. Morrison and his attorney.
Apparently still not satisfied, Mr. Morrison continued to write letters to Sandhills Center making the same baseless claim that Sandhills Center was not complying with North Carolina law.
Again, in an effort to address Mr. Morrison’s concerns, Sandhills Center requested that the North Carolina Attorney General’s office review the matter and provide a legal opinion regarding whether or not the services provided by Sandhills Center in fact complied with North Carolina law.
On April 8, 2011, Special Deputy Attorney General, Richard Slipsky issued an informal opinion/advisory letter which rejected out of hand Mr. Morrison’s position and advised that Sandhills Center was in fact complying with North Carolina law.
Notwithstanding the fact that both the Department of Health and Human Services and the North Carolina Attorney General’s office had opined that Sandhills Center was complying with North Carolina law, Mr. Morrison threatened to sue Sandhills Center, blindly insisting that his position was legally correct.
In an effort to avoid potential litigation, which would both be frivolous and costly, Sandhills Center suggested that the parties engage in pre-litigation mediation in an effort to resolve their differences. The parties selected former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Henry Frye to preside over the mediation.
The mediation was held on April 15, 2011. Representatives of the North Carolina Attorney General’s office also attended the Mediation.
Although the mediation did not yield an immediate resolution, there were attempts on both sides to understand and appreciate the others’ concerns.
Notwithstanding the fact that Sandhills Center was complying with all of the mandates of North Carolina law, and in an effort to appease Mr. Morrison, Sandhills Center ultimately agreed to contract with Therapeutic Alternatives to provide a licensed psychiatrist to make daily rounds Monday through Friday in both the emergency room and in the hospital’s transitional unit where patients are awaiting transfer to an inpatient facility.
This service would be in addition to the 24-7 Mobile Crisis Team already in place in Randolph County.
Sandhills agreed to fund an on-site psychiatrist because, at the mediation, this was clearly Mr. Morrison’s main concern.
On May 5, 2011, Sandhills Center informed Mr. Morrison and the Hospital’s attorney, in writing, of its intent to provide this service effective July 1, 2011.
Sandhills Center was able to fund the on site psychiatrist by electing not to compensate the emergency room physicians who were providing assessments. The thought was that this would not negatively affect patient care because the emergency physicians were being compensated by Sandhills Center for services that they were already required to perform under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (“EMTALA”).
EMTALA requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare regardless of citizenship or ability to pay.
Thus, effective July 1, 2011 mentally ill patients in Randolph Countywill have the benefit of (1) a 24-7 Mobile Crisis Team which includes licenses qualified professionals, (2) the same emergency room service previously provided by emergency room physicians and staff and (3) an on site psychiatrist making rounds through the emergency department and transitional unit Monday through Friday.
The foregoing represents just some of the facts that Mr. Morrison neglected to include in his self-serving guest column.
It is unfortunate that Mr. Morrison continues to publicly attack Sandhills Center in light of the fact that, according to the North Carolina Attorney General’s office, Sandhills Center was not required to make any concessions in response to Mr. Morrison’s demands.
Although it is difficult to comprehend Mr. Morrison’s true motives, perhaps it has more to do with the bottom line than patient care. In fact, Sandhills Center’s decision to provide a psychiatrist to make daily rounds Monday through Friday will, according to Mr. Morrison, result in income to the hospital on an annual basis of approximately $300,000.00.
Perhaps Mr. Morrison is attempting to sway public opinion in the event that the hospital elects to sue Sandhills Center.
In any event, if Mr. Morrison spent less time grand standing in front of the County Commissioners, finger pointing and writing guest columns, he might realize Sandhills Center gave him exactly what he requested.
Thomas Van Camp
It's actually not difficult for some of us to discern Bob Morrison's motives, Mr. Van Camp. But we're covered in the scars he inflicted. He would lie to his Mother if it put money in his pocket.
He's already put his hand on a Bible and repeatedly sworn lie after lie . . . with even the the presumed Wrath of the Lord God Himself failing to deter him. God knows that the State of North Carolina will impose no such sanction.
What Bob is doing now is purely and simply about putting money in his institution's pocket - which in turn, ultimately means more money in his pocket. I very strongly suspect that all of this public posturing has something to do with getting a piece of the action . . . in other words, eventually extorting external funding for an inpatient unit at Randolph. It's right out of the progressive playbook.
"You never let a serious crisis go to waste . . . it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. " -Rahm Emanuel
Let me be clear. Providing inpatient Psychiatric services in Asheboro is actually not a bad idea. But I would just prefer that it happen after an honest, open dialogue (not gonna happen in a town whose newspaper has dived behind a pay wall and only sucks at one teat), as opposed to predicated on a pack of lies that assigns blame to the very people and institutions who've been doing the hard work all along.
I would also not worry too much about public opinion, Mr. Van Camp. It doesn't count for much in a Court of law (witness the farce of justice that will set Casey Anthony free in a matter of days). And take it from the homegirl who might as well been a mugging victim in New York City, as long as their own applecarts are not jostled too much, most people in Asheboro don't get worked up over anything that might actually embody small town values.
I really love the way that Mr. Van Camp turns the tables on the Emergency Department physicians who have no doubt done most of the whining because Psych Patients are parked in their money-making beds (they can't evaluate as many faux heart attacks).
"You want our already over-burdened-facility-not-really-at-fault-in-this-mess to fund psychiatrists that your way-overpaid CEO should have thought about recruiting a long time ago . . . as a very basic community service? Fine. We're already on a shoe-string. And EMTALA allows us to cut our own losses by letting your Emergency Department doctors EAT IT . . . instead of paying them for work you admit they cannot do.
I believe it's called an "unfunded mandate", Bob. Take it up with your hero, Obama.
(Beautiful.)
I wonder how his ED physicians feel about Bob now (this is one instance in which I don't feel sorry for the doctors at all - mostly because it's some of the same crew who sat around deaf, dumb and blind while I got stomped)? He's not so much the hero, I expect.
In closing, I saw Bob fairly recently. We live in the same neighborhood (well, he lives there - I more or less vacation there), and starting out on my last trip back down East, I saw him in the cool-down phase of a run.
He saw me too, and GLARED his worst "evil-Bob" glare as I drove past him.
Like I care.
I mean, PUHLEASE. I honestly don't know why this poser is glaring at me . . . after all, I'm the homegirl who, for nearly fourteen years, has had to drive hours in order to work (after the great blackball) . . . the one who takes the killer-call no one else will touch in an attempt to stabilize her financial situation - a situation that will NEVER recover from what Bob Morrison and Randolph did.
In stark contrast, Morrison is the "public servant" that Randolph Hospital pays over $700,000/year . . . yet We-the-Gullible public are supposed to believe he cannot afford to pay for his own psychiatrists.''
(I wonder how the residents of the seven other counties Sandhills serves feel about this deal?).
One of my friends asked me if, while on the receiving end of one of those glares, I'm ever tempted to turn Bob into a hood ornament.
I told her, no.
Bob Morrison is so not worth it. He's a giant pustule on the butt of Asheboro. He's MRSA. It's just going to take the right antibiotic (i.e. lawyer) to get rid of him.
(How's that as a reflection of my mental health?)
And my advice to Mr. Van Camp and Sandhills the next time Bob flexes his little legal winkie up and down, or our Miss Brooke presumes to lecture Sandhills on following the law (it it were not so pathetic it would be funny) would be this . . .
. . . "Hey Bob, we've been doing some background research on a legal case you and your current law firm were involved in several years back.
You remember the case . . . you DESTROYED the practice of a homegrown Pediatrician after she defied your minions' written threats in order to save a baby's life - and then reported what happened to peer review. It's a CLASSIC whistle-blower scenario (never mind that your current legal counsel's Daddy didn't work very hard to hammer that point home). In doing this fairly dastardly deed, you breached a Federal service agreement - bastardizing the intent of the public service program that brought the doctor home, depriving patients/their parents of a doctor they trusted and pouring taxpayer's money down the drain.
We're kinda wondering, Bob, how exactly did good patient care factor in to all of that? Did you really want this Pediatrician to roll over and go back to sleep and let that child die? Or keep her mouth shut while a doctor YOU falsely advertised as having expertise in Neonatology that he did not possess, kept prancing around the hospital as some kind of specialist?
But you weren't done pounding, were you Bob? After destroying any chance she had for staying in town, you tried to bully this lady doctor into silence, by SLAPP-suing her for telling the truth to the government she served. That's pretty damned low-ball, Bob. Who was paying for your lawyers as they warped the law and used it like a sledgehammer?
We've been looking into some of the allegations this lady doctor has made online (about the bold-face lies you told, and being swindled at settlement) . . . allegations you've not had the decency or guts to address in any way . . . allegations that the same newspaper letting you write your guest columns has determinedly pretended do not exist.
The thing is, Bob, N.C. General Statutes and U.S./IRS Codes are VERY clear on public records being made available to the public. It sure looks like you treated the Court pretty contemptuously when you LIED UNDER OATH in discovery . . . and defied a judge's order . . . and negotiated with the physician victim of your malfeasance in very BAD FAITH.
Perjury is a fairly serious charge.
I mean, my God, Bob. You wanna talk about mental health? It would be AMAZING if this doctor did not suffer from PTSD and depression. You did the worst kind of number on her!
The N.C. Attorney General is in the next room. How's about we go discuss it with him?"
As my good friend, Buzz Armfield said when all of this was brought to his attention (that's after he could catch his breath from hysterial laughter over the absurdity of it all), "Mary, God bless him, your Daddy was right".
Bob and Brooke aren't strange bedfellows at all. They're just bedfellows in the Cuckoo's Nest of
Asheboro. The game was fixed all along.
I was actually almost "lucky", in that unlike Randle McMurphy I was able to get away from the crazy people running this *&^%$#@! asylum.
Thank God, this one could fly East.
I was actually almost "lucky", in that unlike Randle McMurphy I was able to get away from the crazy people running this *&^%$#@! asylum.
Thank God, this one could fly East.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
No Justice For Caylee: In The Good Ole USA, Kids & Fetuses Don't Matter At All
I've not followed the Casey Anthony investigation or trial at all. And that's been hard to do.
How the disappearance and murder of one little girl has grabbed the headlines for so long . . . when there are so many children out there who are neglected and physically/mentally/sexually brutalized and murdered every single day . . . is something I've not been able to wrap my head around. Why does the media latch on to what and who it does?
How many children/families still alive/still suffering could have been helped with even a small portion of the air time devoted to a murder trial presented as entertainment . . . the ultimate in "reality TV"?
I can't deny that, without a conscious effort to avoid following the case, it would have been easy for me to get sucked in. As someone who never had children, I cannot comprehend the kind of evil it would take to snuff the life out of that gorgeous little girl in the pictures.
The media circus has been a truly sickening thing to behold - even for someone like me who exercised every opportunity to change the channel. Nancy Grace, Geraldo and all the rest of the vultures feeding off this case are worthy of a stint in one of the lower circles of Hell.
I've known all along that justice would not be served for Caylee Anthony, and the "non-guilty" verdicts on the felony counts were exactly what I expected and predicted . . . not because I believe her Mother isn't guilty-beyond-any-reasonable-doubt (it's hard to get past the weeks of Casey lying about where her daughter was, or the car trunk reeking with decomp, or duct-tape covering the child's skull where her nose and mouth used to be - information I must have absorbed by osmosis because I did not purposely sit down and read/watch anything about the case) . . . but because the justice system in this country is so fundamentally warped.
I'm not "speechless". I'm not "shocked". I can't even work up outrage. I'm just resigned. I absorbed the news and kept working as colleagues around me fumed. Indeed, I wasn't going to comment at all on the "trial of the century" until I saw a "tweet" posted by Roseanne Barr after the verdict:
"Kids only matter in this country when they are fetuses."
There'd be a lot of truth in that statement if fetuses actually mattered. The devaluation of children in this country starts in the womb - when taking their lives is someone else's "right".
I'm very sorry for poor Caylee. It's not right.
But alas, there's a lot that's not right in this sorry world. Just ask the "fetuses" who did not make it in.
7/6 Update:
News reports state that Casey Anthony is set to "make millions" via book deals and media appearances.
Of COURSE, she is.
Kill a child - either deliberately or via gross parental negligence - and lie you ass off/cover up the death - and you too can become a media sensation and a millionaire.
Save a child's life and . . . well . . . read the sidebar.
How the disappearance and murder of one little girl has grabbed the headlines for so long . . . when there are so many children out there who are neglected and physically/mentally/sexually brutalized and murdered every single day . . . is something I've not been able to wrap my head around. Why does the media latch on to what and who it does?
How many children/families still alive/still suffering could have been helped with even a small portion of the air time devoted to a murder trial presented as entertainment . . . the ultimate in "reality TV"?
I can't deny that, without a conscious effort to avoid following the case, it would have been easy for me to get sucked in. As someone who never had children, I cannot comprehend the kind of evil it would take to snuff the life out of that gorgeous little girl in the pictures.
The media circus has been a truly sickening thing to behold - even for someone like me who exercised every opportunity to change the channel. Nancy Grace, Geraldo and all the rest of the vultures feeding off this case are worthy of a stint in one of the lower circles of Hell.
I've known all along that justice would not be served for Caylee Anthony, and the "non-guilty" verdicts on the felony counts were exactly what I expected and predicted . . . not because I believe her Mother isn't guilty-beyond-any-reasonable-doubt (it's hard to get past the weeks of Casey lying about where her daughter was, or the car trunk reeking with decomp, or duct-tape covering the child's skull where her nose and mouth used to be - information I must have absorbed by osmosis because I did not purposely sit down and read/watch anything about the case) . . . but because the justice system in this country is so fundamentally warped.
I'm not "speechless". I'm not "shocked". I can't even work up outrage. I'm just resigned. I absorbed the news and kept working as colleagues around me fumed. Indeed, I wasn't going to comment at all on the "trial of the century" until I saw a "tweet" posted by Roseanne Barr after the verdict:
"Kids only matter in this country when they are fetuses."
There'd be a lot of truth in that statement if fetuses actually mattered. The devaluation of children in this country starts in the womb - when taking their lives is someone else's "right".
I'm very sorry for poor Caylee. It's not right.
But alas, there's a lot that's not right in this sorry world. Just ask the "fetuses" who did not make it in.
7/6 Update:
News reports state that Casey Anthony is set to "make millions" via book deals and media appearances.
Of COURSE, she is.
Kill a child - either deliberately or via gross parental negligence - and lie you ass off/cover up the death - and you too can become a media sensation and a millionaire.
Save a child's life and . . . well . . . read the sidebar.
Monday, July 04, 2011
Independence Day 2011: What Happens When Social Media's Leading Physician Voice (Kevin M.D. Of MedPage Today) Gets Tangled Up In That Veil He Can't Ever Seem To Pull Completely Back
Last Independence Day weekend, I put up a post on the ridiculous/time-consuming/expensive requirements now imposed upon Pediatricians who want to remain (key word, REMAIN) Board-certified. I updated the post in December. They're good posts and I'd encourage anyone who hasn't to read them. The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) and medicine's other specialty-Boards have long been behaving like a bunch of Ivy League Fascists, and somebody needs to call them on it.
Once you've jumped through all the hoops to become a Board-certified physician (the medical school, the residency, the two-day proctored exam, the oral exam in some specialties), that should be IT.
I'll happily do all the American-Academy-of-Pediatrics-approved Continuing-Medical-Education you want me to do . . . I'll take online open-book tests (a very useful learning tool) every few years without much fuss . . . but being required to sit for another proctored exam when you haven't seen a classroom in nearly 20 years . . . and plodding through all of the juvenile busy work that the Boards have now invented - on the theory that taking doctors away from their patients to play computer games or conduct faux-research somehow improves patient care . . . is TOTALLY FRICKING RIDICULOUS.
In short, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is selling a bogus bill of goods to the American public, and they're treating doctors like errant/dishonest children. The very clear message is that physicians who've paid their dues cannot be trusted. We are being turned into the enemy by our own kind.
Given the American Medical Association's (AMA's) track record in "representing" physicians over the years, this kind of thing is certainly not new. But it's damned annoying.
Let us be clear: What the ABMS has done is NOT noble, nor will it save millions of lives - but is instead all and only about generating more money for the individual specialty boards - as well as the peripheral industries that the "Maintenance-of-Board Certification" programs prop up. Many millions of dollars. It's not really about producing better doctors.
If all of the fuss was really about producing better doctors, they'd be working on ways to clean up physician peer review, protect medical whistle-blowers and manufacture/legislate some decent tort reform.
I'm actually planning to write the American Board of Pediatrics (they're based in the very enlightened & progressive burg of Chapel Hill) soon, and seriously ask them when I get credit for the going-on fourteen years of medico-legal CRAP I endured because I followed all the high-minded protocols they now "teach" in their "Part Four Activities", answered a nurse's desperate phone call one night-in-the-middle-of-the-night, and (despite the threats of a trio of clueless hospital/practice executives) came in in to stop malpractice/save a critically-ill newborn baby's life.
A little credit for having the stones to author this blog - and speak a little truth to power - might be in order too.
O dear. I have digressed haven't I? That was last year.
The subject of this 2011 Independence Day's post is the MedPage-Today-hosted blog authored by Dr. Kevin Pho, called "Kevin M.D.".
I actually should have written this post several months ago (back in March) and I didn't. The truth is that I'm pretty burned-out on blogging (it's the reason I took a summer break) - and believe that it is subject to all of the ills now affecting main-stream journalism.
Bloggers selling out to sponsors & corporations (ala HuffPo and AOL) . . . or simply trying to run with whoever is currently politically "cool". . . seems more and more to equate with local newspapers kow-towing to advertisers and/or town cliques. There are "right people" and wrong people, you see. You're either in or you're out. It's worse than high-school.
If blogging ever was "relevant", it's not really now.
The very first things to fly out the door when journalists - or bloggers - sell their souls to the highest bidders are accountability, transparency and the truth. But these things are as necessary as air and water to the health and well-being of a society. Indeed, my hometown of Asheboro, North Carolina can credit most of its "dying" largely to our journalists at the Courier Tribune looking the other way while the-right-people-in-Rotary did very dirty things to good people.
[Speaking of, I am quite frankly AMAZED that Asheboro's Courier Tribune actually published a letter from Thomas Van Camp (a lawyer for Sandhills Mental Health Center) that made mincemeat of Randolph Hospital CEO, Robert Morrison's recent campaign to style Sandhills as the evil-doer in Bob's abject failure (as a non-profit, community hospital CEO) to provide adequate psychiatric care to patients in Randolph County (he was too busy building cancer centers we didn't really need). The Bobber's shameless grand-standing amounts to legal extortion designed to get Sandhills to pay for a psychiatrist that the over-$700,000 man should have hired himself long ago - IF he was so "concerned" about patient care. But this is a subject for another post on another day of what is supposed to be a summer break.]
Where Dr. Kevin Pho, of Kevin M.D. is concerned, as a fellow medical blogger, I've really tried to remain "collegial" (doctors are nothing if not collegial) and do things by the book (we'll get to that).
Blog wars are so tiresome.
(Of course, when you really think about it, doing things by the book is what got me professionally eviscerated in the first place - it's all in the side-bar, folks.)
Alas, collegiality . . . being polite to those fellow professionals who've stomped on me (or sat by deaf, dumb and blind while I was getting stomped) . . . has not ever served me well. So I'm left with calling them as I see them.
And Kevin Pho, M.D. is a blogging fraud. A sell-out of the first order. An AMA/Obamacare hack masquerading as someone who has an objective, critical eye. He's sewing up holes in that veil he keeps talking about as fast as some of the rest of us can rip them.
Two things happened this past week that made me re-think remaining silent with regards to my opinion of the New Hampshire internist who bills himself as "social media's leading physician voice" . . . a self-endowed "title" that I've always found more than a little presumptuous.
And that's mostly because I've come to understand that all Kevin wants to hear is the sound of his own voice - or those that agree with him/his VIP sponsors (which include the AMA). He wants to be on all the advisory boards and invited to do the Times Op-Eds and/or TV spots . . . he sees himself as the next "Dr. Oz", albeit with more credibility. Blogging is merely a stepping stone . . . and to get up the stones to higher ground, the good Dr. Pho must play the game.
All of that would be just fine with me if he (and MedPage Today) were PLAYING FAIR and letting all the voices of medicine be heard on his blog - and if he were giving the public he says he wants to educate the whole truth - by letting all of his readers speak.
But he's not.
In that sense, Kevin reminds me a lot of Edward-Cone-of-the-Cones-Healthcare-System-Cones . . . one of the Greensboro, N.C.'s progressive "journalists" who invited me to this blogosphere six years ago to tell my story . . . and then (in true Ethan Feinsilver fashion) did everything he could (i.e. by banning and delinking and "Coning") to bury it and discredit/trash/marginalize the Asheboro Pediatrician/home-girl who refused to stand-down and turn a blind eye while a Cone-owned doctor nearly killed a newborn baby girl with his arrogance and clinical ignorance.
Ed and the boys at the N&R sold a bill-of-goods that they did not deliver on. But hey, trust-fund Ed (I know what masters he's served all along) really wishes me well. Besides, Ed didn't have to watch his newborn child nearly die because of the stupidity of a doctor. Likewise, he's never experienced watching someone he's loved and nurtured and raised to be a decent human being endure every manner of professional humiliation (courtesy of a "non-profit" hospital covering its ass) for doing the right thing. His name alone (a name that happens to figure into my story) will likely immunize his offspring from the things other lesser beings have endured. The rest of us can "get over it" and "move on".
Getting back to what prompted this post, first, one of Kevin's readers/regular commenters contacted me out of the blue. We'd corresponded before. Long story very short, she was asking questions from the point-of-view of a patient . . . in this case a patient's parent . . . the very kind of person Kevin says he wants to inform - and help. Her daughter was very badly surgically mauled (I have some experience with that), and she has encountered many roadblocks in terms of extracting any kind of satisfaction or "justice" out of our thoroughly-broken peer review and medical malpractice systems. In what came as no surprise to me (yet befuddled and disillusioned her) this Mama-lioness's biggest problem seems to be the difference between what doctors evaluating her daughter in the wake of the surgical mauling will tell her privately - and what they will say publicly/under Oath.
It's called "the White Wall".
(If you wonder how that works, all you have to do is go to the Housecalls sidebar and read about what
Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin did to me - while some of Asheboro finest and most respected physicians pretended it wasn't happening.)
My commentary at Kevin's . . . back when he did not block my IP address (we'll get to that) . . . often referring to my experience in Asheboro (when appropriate/on-point to his posts), and the realities of physician peer review . . . had intrigued her. She wanted to know more about what really goes on behind that "veil" that the good Dr. Pho brags about about pulling back . . .
. . . but can somehow never can get far enough back to cast sunlight into the darkest places.
We had a good back & forth via e-mail. I was blunt at the time (I've found that most patients actually appreciate bluntness - if it's the truth) . . . advising her that the only profession that circles-the-wagons-and-covers-the-asses-of-its-bad-apples more than medicine is the one symbolically represented by a blind-folded goddess holding her scales.
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I learned long ago - the very hard way - that Lady Justice is no lady . . . she knows exactly who she's bedding . . . she spends most of her time on her back with her skirt up around her neck . . . and she's got no problem with money tipping the scales.
In the practice of law, particularly in North Carolina, "the Two Americas" is very much alive and well (if you have any questions about that, just ask my former Senator, Johnny Reid Edwards - or ex-Governor-turned-convicted-felon, Mike Sleazely).
In her latest e-mail, the blogging-Mama-bear said she'd been thinking about me and wanted to know what I was up to. I told her that I was working on exactly what I said I was working on when I took my break back in May . . . constructing a legal case against the toothless state and Federal"oversight" agencies that coldly let this former public servant swing while Randolph Hospital worked its dark magic on her life and career.
But I also have a job, I'm doing massive amounts of overtime this summer, and lately the stork has been crapping on my head (that's okay, it's job security). So it's a slow go.
Bottom line: The N.C. Medical Board, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Hospital Organizations, the N.C. and U.S. Departments of Social Services, and even the Internal Revenue Service (now charged with the oversight of healthcare courtesy of Obamacare) were utterly toothless when it came to actually doing the right thing by a doctor who put a patient's life before her own career and happiness. They were NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.
And if all of these hallowed agencies could not do right by the aforementioned Pediatrician-in-public-service, what in God's Holy Name makes anyone think they're going to do right by patients? GET REAL! You have to wonder what the politicians who dreamed this mish-mash up were smoking.
Instead of responsible, ethical oversight, what Dr. Mary Johnson got was a conspiracy of dunces - getting endlessly bounced from jurisdiction to jurisdiction with no one cooperating or communicating with anyone else.
Plainly and simply (much like the American Board of Medical Specialities peddling their maintenance-
of-certification schemes), these organizations are selling a bad bill of goods to the public. It's WAY past the time their collective feet were held to the fire.
Especially in the wake of the cyber-stalking business last year, I cannot think of a better case than
mine. The state and Federal governments have watched me get professionally pummeled, insulted, and ridiculed (for telling the truth) for years. They have not cared - not intervened EVEN ONCE to stop Randolph Hospital (or anyone else) from doing it.
The case itself is not really hard to make. It's simple malignant, deliberate, never-ending/on-going negligence on the part of ALL of these "oversight" & "patient-safety" agencies. They require duties of physicians that they IN NO WAY protect or defend.
But, as I recently told my good friend, Sir-Buzz-Armfield-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields-who-gave-one-million-dollars-to-Randolph-Hospital's-Cancer-Center, over the years I've discovered that there as many legal opinions as there are lawyers.
And the biggest problem I currently face is finding an attorney in North Carolina who, apart from a real sense of ethics and the spirit/intent of the law, has a spine and some guts. For whoever takes this case is going to have to cast some very negative aspersions on his own profession.
As I have done on mine.
There's no veil to pull back on this blog. I burned it long ago.
We'll get back to my comrade-in-blogging in a few paragraphs. The other thing that prompted me to write this post was a recent conversation I had with an out-of-state Pediatrician (who happens to be black) looking for a position in North Carolina. She's done a fair amount of Locum Tenens work (the way I've made my living since the giant screw) and has looked in several states and commented how positions in other neighboring states seemed far more "stable" (i.e. physicians tended to take a job and stay there) as opposed to North Carolina. She opined that North Carolina is a "revolving door" (once-upon-a-time I got SLAPP-sued over pointing this out in a complaint sent to USDHHS, so I always LOVE it when a colleague makes the same observation). She was surprised by this ebb and flow of (mostly) young physicians in and out of positions throughout North Carolina - as the state boasts four medical schools and a number of nationally-prominent medical institutions. She thought the state would be a haven of medical stability - but exactly the opposite is true.
I told her that North Carolina's medical schools and giant medical institutions (most of them sucking eagerly - in some fashion - at the public teat) were EXACTLY the problem . . .. as our medical schools, (despite all of their enlightened, progressive hype & rivel about diversity and cultural enlightenment) are perhaps some of the last standing bastions of white male supremacy (aka: good-ole-boyedness) in our society. Having four medical schools in North Carolina actually means that there is an endless supply of newbie physicians to sucker into the scut work in places no one wants to work - and they are very easily taken for granted and abused. Women, blacks, other minorities and especially foreign-medical-grads are merely cogs in a giant wheel of profit . . . run by way-overpaid people with MBA's (as opposed to M.D.'s) . . . skimming their own money off the top and on the backs of the labor of others.
Despite the massive fiscal and human investment made in their training, these young doctors are oftentimes treated horribly . . . in a state that has embraced "right-to-work" philosophy with such gusto that employed physicians, despite their unique duties and responsibilities, are oftentimes be treated no better, if not worse, than lowliest employee at one of the local mills in one of our dying towns.
Meanwhile, the increasingly-entitled American public still thinks that all doctors are "rich", so we deserve and/or can handle whatever pummeling comes our way. Everybody "knows" Pediatricians perform tonsillectomies for the money.
This brings me back to Dr. Kevin Pho . . . one of the fortunate in our profession who has apparently been allowed to live his dream, and seems to have never had a bad professional day in his life. Like my local blogging nemesis Edward Cone, from his carefully constructed online perch amongst the "right people" and organizations of medicine, Kevin appears to me to have no real ability to comprehend the darker underbelly of medicine . . . or some of its uglier secrets. And he most certainly has no empathy or real compassion for colleagues who've walked through - and been badly burned by - fires started by someone else.
Indeed, lately Kevin has done nothing lately but HACK for the American Medical Association (at best, it "represents" about 20% of practicing physicians in the United States) and its support of Obamacare.
Several months ago, I could take no more. Dr. Pho had put up yet another post that advocated young physicians going into public service (it's very Kennedyesque and Peace Corpsish, dontchaknow) - specifically the National Health Service Corps . . . the very Federal program that allowed Randolph Hospital to do what it did to me without batting an eyelash.
The boys and girls in Bethesda could barely come out of the rain - much less enforce the terms of their own site agreements.
"Obamacare", of course, threw even more money at the program - without fixing ANY of the massive black holes physicians-in-public-service can fall through (so much for "reform").
It's glorified indentured servitude. Make no mistake that if you sign on for this ride (usually on the road to nowhere), and you need help, NO ONE IN WASHINGTON IS GOING TO HAVE YOUR BACK.
I sent Kevin a personal e-mail that minced no words about endorsing these programs - and his wholesale failure to educate "newbies" about the dangers of public service. It equates to deliberately leading lambs to slaughter in order to get a "seat at the table" in Washington (never mind that the AMA's table equates to the kids table in the back of the room). Pure self-service. It's despicable - especially when you have doctors on your blog who have served in these programs who are telling very ugly stories . . .
. . . ugly stories President Obama and his administration did not want anyone to hear BEFORE "reform" was Rahmed through Congress.
Almost immediately, I discovered that my IP address was blocked at Kevin's and I could not post comments. I tried to post as a "guest" from other computers - yet nothing got through.
In essence, this physician's voice had been effectively silenced by an influential medical blogger who bills himself as "social media's leading physician voice" and whose blog is regularly read by national reporters trolling for medical stories.
Mine is a story that SCREAMS to be told to the largely kept-in-the-dark masses - particularly for the sake of younger doctors trying to sort out how to pay back those God-awful school loans.
Par for this course. It made me angry, but as I said before, blog-wars are tiresome and rarely worth the effort put into them. I basically wrote Kevin off as a loser and a loss - much in the way I've written off John Robinson and Edward Cone and everyone who has ever tried to pass themselves off as a "journalist" at Asheboro's Courier Tribune.
I stopped checking Kevin's blog every day. And I discovered that I wasn't really missing anything. I could live without vanilla medical commentary.
I did send Kevin another e-mail asking for an explanation and got nothing but radio silence. For a short while, I let it go. I tried to "move on" and "get over it".
But as Kevin continued to drool over the AMA and its "representation" of physicians (his main argument seeming to be, "what else have we got?"), I did eventually write MedPage Today's Editors, and ask for an explanation for my banishment.
I made the point that I sign my name and take responsibility for all of my comments - something that many of Kevin's favorite anons do not do.
I also pointed out that prior to blocking my comments altogether, one of Pho’s tactics was to (1) heavily edit my comments, or (2) let me comment a few times . . . get a conversation or exchange going . . . and then drop/edit/block responses I made to other commenters who were addressing - or (sometimes) outright attacking me - essentially letting their statement or attack stand as "the last word". You could say it's a very "transparent" way to steer your thread towards making someone look bad.
Editing comments without permission - then publishing them - particularly the comments of people who sign their names and own what they say - is one of my pet peeves. You essentially take that person's voice and make it your own. It's the worst kind of deception and fraud . . . a wholesale rape of that person's right to free unencumbered speech - to be heard as they are.
Marrianne Mattera, Managing Editor of MedPage Today, initially reported back that MedPage today would be reviewing Dr. Pho's policies with regards to comment moderation. Later on, as I remained banned - and persisted, she became more prickly, stating that Kevin had the right to "moderate" his blog as he saw fit - and had no real obligation to explain what he was doing or why.
Later on, Executive Editor, Peggy Peck, also made some easy-to-take-as-disparaging remarks about the number of readers of my little-blog-that-could vs. the number of readers of heavily-sponsored Kevin's. My forum was my blog, and Kevin could do as he liked - even as he told the world that every voice mattered. The message was very clearly sent that my physician's voice was not nearly as important as the butt-kissing blogging internist who seems intent on buryng his head in the sand when it comes to what some of his colleagues have endured on the front lines of medicine - and in the service of their country.
This response to a physician/fellow-blogger who signs her name is interesting in that my aforementioned "Mama-bear" friend reported to me that Kevin had once banned her too.
She immediately complained to MedPage today.
She told them that Kevin was being deceptive.
"Patients only think they have a voice (at Kevin's). There is a place online that shows the worth of his site, and the profit from more clicks. Ad revenue requires neutrality."
(Or at least the appearance thereof. It's the same trick the journalists pull. And no one is buying.)
She was very quickly unbanned.
She tells me that I'm not the only physician/commenter who is fed up with Kevin's tactics as a blog-owner-billing-himself-as-the-voice-of-his-peeps. She's heard from others who cannot seem to get past the smug little wizard's curtain (as have I). I'm not the only physician whose voice and commentary have taken a back seat to Dr. Pho's agenda-of-the-moment - and his desire to move on to bigger/better things.
My biggest frustration with Kevin Pho is that he positioned himself as some kind of big media "player" during the shameful Congressional fiasco that eventually turned into what is now called "Obamacare". Now, one would think that "social media's leading physician voice" . . . someone who KNEW what a fellow-blogging-physician had been through in public service . . . might have said something at one of those kiddie tables he and the AMA were sitting at in Washington . . . might have encouraged someone in Congress to contact Dr. Mary Johnson, formerly a Pediatrician in the National Health Service Corps, and talk to her before throwing more good money after bad . . . maybe even let her testify before the Committees that throw the money.
He might have encouraged the bureaucrats in Washington to clean up their act.
In the interest of justice, he might have also asked a national journalist/media outlet to look seriously at investigating and reporting my story.
But he didn't.
Because it was all about Kevin and how high he could go.
So call me independent and less-than-collegial, but I am calling BULLSHIT on Kevin M.D., Marrianne Mattera and Peggy Peck and MedPage Today. I'm availing myself of my forum, and the Internet is FOREVER.
Dr. Kevin Pho is not pulling back any veils. He's part of the problem now. Smoke and mirrors and pure self-promotion.
And in my humble opinion (as someone he clearly regards as a "nobody"), it ain't what blogging is supposed to be about.
In closing, where blogging is concerned, I feel like those one of those Angry Red Birds who die hammering their heads against walls built by evil pigs. But at least I'll die trying . . .
. . . and clean . . . as opposed covered in filth.
Author's Note: I'm going to pretend I'm Kevin now. Comments on this post are closed. As stated
early-on, I'm officially on a blogging break , and doing boatloads of Pediatric overtime in real-world rural North Carolina, so I don't have the time to moderate. That and at this point in the great scheme of things, I really don't care what anyone who might defend Kevin Pho's tactics thinks.
Because if they defend his tactics . . . in 2011 America . . . they're just wrong.
7/5 Evening Update: I forwarded this blog post to Marianne Mattera and Peggy Peck of MedPage Today.
This was Ms. Peck's response (it's in blue because it's soooooo progressive):
I believe this matter has been addressed, digested, and it is now closed. I see that you continue as an active blogger and I applaud your enthusiasm.
Very "John Robinson". This was my response:
Ms. Peck both you and Kevin Pho are as phony as it gets. It’s crystal clear that FREE SPEECH and journalistic neutrality/integrity mean nothing to MedPage Today.
Once you've jumped through all the hoops to become a Board-certified physician (the medical school, the residency, the two-day proctored exam, the oral exam in some specialties), that should be IT.
I'll happily do all the American-Academy-of-Pediatrics-approved Continuing-Medical-Education you want me to do . . . I'll take online open-book tests (a very useful learning tool) every few years without much fuss . . . but being required to sit for another proctored exam when you haven't seen a classroom in nearly 20 years . . . and plodding through all of the juvenile busy work that the Boards have now invented - on the theory that taking doctors away from their patients to play computer games or conduct faux-research somehow improves patient care . . . is TOTALLY FRICKING RIDICULOUS.
In short, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is selling a bogus bill of goods to the American public, and they're treating doctors like errant/dishonest children. The very clear message is that physicians who've paid their dues cannot be trusted. We are being turned into the enemy by our own kind.
Given the American Medical Association's (AMA's) track record in "representing" physicians over the years, this kind of thing is certainly not new. But it's damned annoying.
Let us be clear: What the ABMS has done is NOT noble, nor will it save millions of lives - but is instead all and only about generating more money for the individual specialty boards - as well as the peripheral industries that the "Maintenance-of-Board Certification" programs prop up. Many millions of dollars. It's not really about producing better doctors.
If all of the fuss was really about producing better doctors, they'd be working on ways to clean up physician peer review, protect medical whistle-blowers and manufacture/legislate some decent tort reform.
I'm actually planning to write the American Board of Pediatrics (they're based in the very enlightened & progressive burg of Chapel Hill) soon, and seriously ask them when I get credit for the going-on fourteen years of medico-legal CRAP I endured because I followed all the high-minded protocols they now "teach" in their "Part Four Activities", answered a nurse's desperate phone call one night-in-the-middle-of-the-night, and (despite the threats of a trio of clueless hospital/practice executives) came in in to stop malpractice/save a critically-ill newborn baby's life.
A little credit for having the stones to author this blog - and speak a little truth to power - might be in order too.
O dear. I have digressed haven't I? That was last year.
The subject of this 2011 Independence Day's post is the MedPage-Today-hosted blog authored by Dr. Kevin Pho, called "Kevin M.D.".
I actually should have written this post several months ago (back in March) and I didn't. The truth is that I'm pretty burned-out on blogging (it's the reason I took a summer break) - and believe that it is subject to all of the ills now affecting main-stream journalism.
Bloggers selling out to sponsors & corporations (ala HuffPo and AOL) . . . or simply trying to run with whoever is currently politically "cool". . . seems more and more to equate with local newspapers kow-towing to advertisers and/or town cliques. There are "right people" and wrong people, you see. You're either in or you're out. It's worse than high-school.
If blogging ever was "relevant", it's not really now.
The very first things to fly out the door when journalists - or bloggers - sell their souls to the highest bidders are accountability, transparency and the truth. But these things are as necessary as air and water to the health and well-being of a society. Indeed, my hometown of Asheboro, North Carolina can credit most of its "dying" largely to our journalists at the Courier Tribune looking the other way while the-right-people-in-Rotary did very dirty things to good people.
[Speaking of, I am quite frankly AMAZED that Asheboro's Courier Tribune actually published a letter from Thomas Van Camp (a lawyer for Sandhills Mental Health Center) that made mincemeat of Randolph Hospital CEO, Robert Morrison's recent campaign to style Sandhills as the evil-doer in Bob's abject failure (as a non-profit, community hospital CEO) to provide adequate psychiatric care to patients in Randolph County (he was too busy building cancer centers we didn't really need). The Bobber's shameless grand-standing amounts to legal extortion designed to get Sandhills to pay for a psychiatrist that the over-$700,000 man should have hired himself long ago - IF he was so "concerned" about patient care. But this is a subject for another post on another day of what is supposed to be a summer break.]
Where Dr. Kevin Pho, of Kevin M.D. is concerned, as a fellow medical blogger, I've really tried to remain "collegial" (doctors are nothing if not collegial) and do things by the book (we'll get to that).
Blog wars are so tiresome.
(Of course, when you really think about it, doing things by the book is what got me professionally eviscerated in the first place - it's all in the side-bar, folks.)
Alas, collegiality . . . being polite to those fellow professionals who've stomped on me (or sat by deaf, dumb and blind while I was getting stomped) . . . has not ever served me well. So I'm left with calling them as I see them.
And Kevin Pho, M.D. is a blogging fraud. A sell-out of the first order. An AMA/Obamacare hack masquerading as someone who has an objective, critical eye. He's sewing up holes in that veil he keeps talking about as fast as some of the rest of us can rip them.
Two things happened this past week that made me re-think remaining silent with regards to my opinion of the New Hampshire internist who bills himself as "social media's leading physician voice" . . . a self-endowed "title" that I've always found more than a little presumptuous.
And that's mostly because I've come to understand that all Kevin wants to hear is the sound of his own voice - or those that agree with him/his VIP sponsors (which include the AMA). He wants to be on all the advisory boards and invited to do the Times Op-Eds and/or TV spots . . . he sees himself as the next "Dr. Oz", albeit with more credibility. Blogging is merely a stepping stone . . . and to get up the stones to higher ground, the good Dr. Pho must play the game.
All of that would be just fine with me if he (and MedPage Today) were PLAYING FAIR and letting all the voices of medicine be heard on his blog - and if he were giving the public he says he wants to educate the whole truth - by letting all of his readers speak.
But he's not.
In that sense, Kevin reminds me a lot of Edward-Cone-of-the-Cones-Healthcare-System-Cones . . . one of the Greensboro, N.C.'s progressive "journalists" who invited me to this blogosphere six years ago to tell my story . . . and then (in true Ethan Feinsilver fashion) did everything he could (i.e. by banning and delinking and "Coning") to bury it and discredit/trash/marginalize the Asheboro Pediatrician/home-girl who refused to stand-down and turn a blind eye while a Cone-owned doctor nearly killed a newborn baby girl with his arrogance and clinical ignorance.
Ed and the boys at the N&R sold a bill-of-goods that they did not deliver on. But hey, trust-fund Ed (I know what masters he's served all along) really wishes me well. Besides, Ed didn't have to watch his newborn child nearly die because of the stupidity of a doctor. Likewise, he's never experienced watching someone he's loved and nurtured and raised to be a decent human being endure every manner of professional humiliation (courtesy of a "non-profit" hospital covering its ass) for doing the right thing. His name alone (a name that happens to figure into my story) will likely immunize his offspring from the things other lesser beings have endured. The rest of us can "get over it" and "move on".
Getting back to what prompted this post, first, one of Kevin's readers/regular commenters contacted me out of the blue. We'd corresponded before. Long story very short, she was asking questions from the point-of-view of a patient . . . in this case a patient's parent . . . the very kind of person Kevin says he wants to inform - and help. Her daughter was very badly surgically mauled (I have some experience with that), and she has encountered many roadblocks in terms of extracting any kind of satisfaction or "justice" out of our thoroughly-broken peer review and medical malpractice systems. In what came as no surprise to me (yet befuddled and disillusioned her) this Mama-lioness's biggest problem seems to be the difference between what doctors evaluating her daughter in the wake of the surgical mauling will tell her privately - and what they will say publicly/under Oath.
It's called "the White Wall".
(If you wonder how that works, all you have to do is go to the Housecalls sidebar and read about what
Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin did to me - while some of Asheboro finest and most respected physicians pretended it wasn't happening.)
My commentary at Kevin's . . . back when he did not block my IP address (we'll get to that) . . . often referring to my experience in Asheboro (when appropriate/on-point to his posts), and the realities of physician peer review . . . had intrigued her. She wanted to know more about what really goes on behind that "veil" that the good Dr. Pho brags about about pulling back . . .
. . . but can somehow never can get far enough back to cast sunlight into the darkest places.
We had a good back & forth via e-mail. I was blunt at the time (I've found that most patients actually appreciate bluntness - if it's the truth) . . . advising her that the only profession that circles-the-wagons-and-covers-the-asses-of-its-bad-apples more than medicine is the one symbolically represented by a blind-folded goddess holding her scales.
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I learned long ago - the very hard way - that Lady Justice is no lady . . . she knows exactly who she's bedding . . . she spends most of her time on her back with her skirt up around her neck . . . and she's got no problem with money tipping the scales.
In the practice of law, particularly in North Carolina, "the Two Americas" is very much alive and well (if you have any questions about that, just ask my former Senator, Johnny Reid Edwards - or ex-Governor-turned-convicted-felon, Mike Sleazely).
In her latest e-mail, the blogging-Mama-bear said she'd been thinking about me and wanted to know what I was up to. I told her that I was working on exactly what I said I was working on when I took my break back in May . . . constructing a legal case against the toothless state and Federal"oversight" agencies that coldly let this former public servant swing while Randolph Hospital worked its dark magic on her life and career.
But I also have a job, I'm doing massive amounts of overtime this summer, and lately the stork has been crapping on my head (that's okay, it's job security). So it's a slow go.
Bottom line: The N.C. Medical Board, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Hospital Organizations, the N.C. and U.S. Departments of Social Services, and even the Internal Revenue Service (now charged with the oversight of healthcare courtesy of Obamacare) were utterly toothless when it came to actually doing the right thing by a doctor who put a patient's life before her own career and happiness. They were NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.
And if all of these hallowed agencies could not do right by the aforementioned Pediatrician-in-public-service, what in God's Holy Name makes anyone think they're going to do right by patients? GET REAL! You have to wonder what the politicians who dreamed this mish-mash up were smoking.
Instead of responsible, ethical oversight, what Dr. Mary Johnson got was a conspiracy of dunces - getting endlessly bounced from jurisdiction to jurisdiction with no one cooperating or communicating with anyone else.
Plainly and simply (much like the American Board of Medical Specialities peddling their maintenance-
of-certification schemes), these organizations are selling a bad bill of goods to the public. It's WAY past the time their collective feet were held to the fire.
Especially in the wake of the cyber-stalking business last year, I cannot think of a better case than
mine. The state and Federal governments have watched me get professionally pummeled, insulted, and ridiculed (for telling the truth) for years. They have not cared - not intervened EVEN ONCE to stop Randolph Hospital (or anyone else) from doing it.
The case itself is not really hard to make. It's simple malignant, deliberate, never-ending/on-going negligence on the part of ALL of these "oversight" & "patient-safety" agencies. They require duties of physicians that they IN NO WAY protect or defend.
But, as I recently told my good friend, Sir-Buzz-Armfield-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields-who-gave-one-million-dollars-to-Randolph-Hospital's-Cancer-Center, over the years I've discovered that there as many legal opinions as there are lawyers.
And the biggest problem I currently face is finding an attorney in North Carolina who, apart from a real sense of ethics and the spirit/intent of the law, has a spine and some guts. For whoever takes this case is going to have to cast some very negative aspersions on his own profession.
As I have done on mine.
There's no veil to pull back on this blog. I burned it long ago.
We'll get back to my comrade-in-blogging in a few paragraphs. The other thing that prompted me to write this post was a recent conversation I had with an out-of-state Pediatrician (who happens to be black) looking for a position in North Carolina. She's done a fair amount of Locum Tenens work (the way I've made my living since the giant screw) and has looked in several states and commented how positions in other neighboring states seemed far more "stable" (i.e. physicians tended to take a job and stay there) as opposed to North Carolina. She opined that North Carolina is a "revolving door" (once-upon-a-time I got SLAPP-sued over pointing this out in a complaint sent to USDHHS, so I always LOVE it when a colleague makes the same observation). She was surprised by this ebb and flow of (mostly) young physicians in and out of positions throughout North Carolina - as the state boasts four medical schools and a number of nationally-prominent medical institutions. She thought the state would be a haven of medical stability - but exactly the opposite is true.
I told her that North Carolina's medical schools and giant medical institutions (most of them sucking eagerly - in some fashion - at the public teat) were EXACTLY the problem . . .. as our medical schools, (despite all of their enlightened, progressive hype & rivel about diversity and cultural enlightenment) are perhaps some of the last standing bastions of white male supremacy (aka: good-ole-boyedness) in our society. Having four medical schools in North Carolina actually means that there is an endless supply of newbie physicians to sucker into the scut work in places no one wants to work - and they are very easily taken for granted and abused. Women, blacks, other minorities and especially foreign-medical-grads are merely cogs in a giant wheel of profit . . . run by way-overpaid people with MBA's (as opposed to M.D.'s) . . . skimming their own money off the top and on the backs of the labor of others.
Despite the massive fiscal and human investment made in their training, these young doctors are oftentimes treated horribly . . . in a state that has embraced "right-to-work" philosophy with such gusto that employed physicians, despite their unique duties and responsibilities, are oftentimes be treated no better, if not worse, than lowliest employee at one of the local mills in one of our dying towns.
Meanwhile, the increasingly-entitled American public still thinks that all doctors are "rich", so we deserve and/or can handle whatever pummeling comes our way. Everybody "knows" Pediatricians perform tonsillectomies for the money.
This brings me back to Dr. Kevin Pho . . . one of the fortunate in our profession who has apparently been allowed to live his dream, and seems to have never had a bad professional day in his life. Like my local blogging nemesis Edward Cone, from his carefully constructed online perch amongst the "right people" and organizations of medicine, Kevin appears to me to have no real ability to comprehend the darker underbelly of medicine . . . or some of its uglier secrets. And he most certainly has no empathy or real compassion for colleagues who've walked through - and been badly burned by - fires started by someone else.
Indeed, lately Kevin has done nothing lately but HACK for the American Medical Association (at best, it "represents" about 20% of practicing physicians in the United States) and its support of Obamacare.
Several months ago, I could take no more. Dr. Pho had put up yet another post that advocated young physicians going into public service (it's very Kennedyesque and Peace Corpsish, dontchaknow) - specifically the National Health Service Corps . . . the very Federal program that allowed Randolph Hospital to do what it did to me without batting an eyelash.
The boys and girls in Bethesda could barely come out of the rain - much less enforce the terms of their own site agreements.
"Obamacare", of course, threw even more money at the program - without fixing ANY of the massive black holes physicians-in-public-service can fall through (so much for "reform").
It's glorified indentured servitude. Make no mistake that if you sign on for this ride (usually on the road to nowhere), and you need help, NO ONE IN WASHINGTON IS GOING TO HAVE YOUR BACK.
I sent Kevin a personal e-mail that minced no words about endorsing these programs - and his wholesale failure to educate "newbies" about the dangers of public service. It equates to deliberately leading lambs to slaughter in order to get a "seat at the table" in Washington (never mind that the AMA's table equates to the kids table in the back of the room). Pure self-service. It's despicable - especially when you have doctors on your blog who have served in these programs who are telling very ugly stories . . .
. . . ugly stories President Obama and his administration did not want anyone to hear BEFORE "reform" was Rahmed through Congress.
Almost immediately, I discovered that my IP address was blocked at Kevin's and I could not post comments. I tried to post as a "guest" from other computers - yet nothing got through.
In essence, this physician's voice had been effectively silenced by an influential medical blogger who bills himself as "social media's leading physician voice" and whose blog is regularly read by national reporters trolling for medical stories.
Mine is a story that SCREAMS to be told to the largely kept-in-the-dark masses - particularly for the sake of younger doctors trying to sort out how to pay back those God-awful school loans.
Par for this course. It made me angry, but as I said before, blog-wars are tiresome and rarely worth the effort put into them. I basically wrote Kevin off as a loser and a loss - much in the way I've written off John Robinson and Edward Cone and everyone who has ever tried to pass themselves off as a "journalist" at Asheboro's Courier Tribune.
I stopped checking Kevin's blog every day. And I discovered that I wasn't really missing anything. I could live without vanilla medical commentary.
I did send Kevin another e-mail asking for an explanation and got nothing but radio silence. For a short while, I let it go. I tried to "move on" and "get over it".
But as Kevin continued to drool over the AMA and its "representation" of physicians (his main argument seeming to be, "what else have we got?"), I did eventually write MedPage Today's Editors, and ask for an explanation for my banishment.
I made the point that I sign my name and take responsibility for all of my comments - something that many of Kevin's favorite anons do not do.
I also pointed out that prior to blocking my comments altogether, one of Pho’s tactics was to (1) heavily edit my comments, or (2) let me comment a few times . . . get a conversation or exchange going . . . and then drop/edit/block responses I made to other commenters who were addressing - or (sometimes) outright attacking me - essentially letting their statement or attack stand as "the last word". You could say it's a very "transparent" way to steer your thread towards making someone look bad.
Editing comments without permission - then publishing them - particularly the comments of people who sign their names and own what they say - is one of my pet peeves. You essentially take that person's voice and make it your own. It's the worst kind of deception and fraud . . . a wholesale rape of that person's right to free unencumbered speech - to be heard as they are.
Marrianne Mattera, Managing Editor of MedPage Today, initially reported back that MedPage today would be reviewing Dr. Pho's policies with regards to comment moderation. Later on, as I remained banned - and persisted, she became more prickly, stating that Kevin had the right to "moderate" his blog as he saw fit - and had no real obligation to explain what he was doing or why.
Later on, Executive Editor, Peggy Peck, also made some easy-to-take-as-disparaging remarks about the number of readers of my little-blog-that-could vs. the number of readers of heavily-sponsored Kevin's. My forum was my blog, and Kevin could do as he liked - even as he told the world that every voice mattered. The message was very clearly sent that my physician's voice was not nearly as important as the butt-kissing blogging internist who seems intent on buryng his head in the sand when it comes to what some of his colleagues have endured on the front lines of medicine - and in the service of their country.
This response to a physician/fellow-blogger who signs her name is interesting in that my aforementioned "Mama-bear" friend reported to me that Kevin had once banned her too.
She immediately complained to MedPage today.
She told them that Kevin was being deceptive.
"Patients only think they have a voice (at Kevin's). There is a place online that shows the worth of his site, and the profit from more clicks. Ad revenue requires neutrality."
(Or at least the appearance thereof. It's the same trick the journalists pull. And no one is buying.)
She was very quickly unbanned.
She tells me that I'm not the only physician/commenter who is fed up with Kevin's tactics as a blog-owner-billing-himself-as-the-voice-of-his-peeps. She's heard from others who cannot seem to get past the smug little wizard's curtain (as have I). I'm not the only physician whose voice and commentary have taken a back seat to Dr. Pho's agenda-of-the-moment - and his desire to move on to bigger/better things.
My biggest frustration with Kevin Pho is that he positioned himself as some kind of big media "player" during the shameful Congressional fiasco that eventually turned into what is now called "Obamacare". Now, one would think that "social media's leading physician voice" . . . someone who KNEW what a fellow-blogging-physician had been through in public service . . . might have said something at one of those kiddie tables he and the AMA were sitting at in Washington . . . might have encouraged someone in Congress to contact Dr. Mary Johnson, formerly a Pediatrician in the National Health Service Corps, and talk to her before throwing more good money after bad . . . maybe even let her testify before the Committees that throw the money.
He might have encouraged the bureaucrats in Washington to clean up their act.
In the interest of justice, he might have also asked a national journalist/media outlet to look seriously at investigating and reporting my story.
But he didn't.
Because it was all about Kevin and how high he could go.
So call me independent and less-than-collegial, but I am calling BULLSHIT on Kevin M.D., Marrianne Mattera and Peggy Peck and MedPage Today. I'm availing myself of my forum, and the Internet is FOREVER.
Dr. Kevin Pho is not pulling back any veils. He's part of the problem now. Smoke and mirrors and pure self-promotion.
And in my humble opinion (as someone he clearly regards as a "nobody"), it ain't what blogging is supposed to be about.
In closing, where blogging is concerned, I feel like those one of those Angry Red Birds who die hammering their heads against walls built by evil pigs. But at least I'll die trying . . .
. . . and clean . . . as opposed covered in filth.
Author's Note: I'm going to pretend I'm Kevin now. Comments on this post are closed. As stated
early-on, I'm officially on a blogging break , and doing boatloads of Pediatric overtime in real-world rural North Carolina, so I don't have the time to moderate. That and at this point in the great scheme of things, I really don't care what anyone who might defend Kevin Pho's tactics thinks.
Because if they defend his tactics . . . in 2011 America . . . they're just wrong.
7/5 Evening Update: I forwarded this blog post to Marianne Mattera and Peggy Peck of MedPage Today.
This was Ms. Peck's response (it's in blue because it's soooooo progressive):
I believe this matter has been addressed, digested, and it is now closed. I see that you continue as an active blogger and I applaud your enthusiasm.
Very "John Robinson". This was my response:
Ms. Peck both you and Kevin Pho are as phony as it gets. It’s crystal clear that FREE SPEECH and journalistic neutrality/integrity mean nothing to MedPage Today.
Forgive me if I cannot applaud presenting yourselves to be
something you are not. You are LYING to the public you-all claim to want to
educate.
Digest that.
And/so, there you have it. While proclaiming to lead the way in representing the opinions and experiences of physicians online, MedPage Today and Kevin M.D. are shutting people out of the dialogue - a dialogue that Kevin edits or shapes by exclusion to suit his purposes.
It's despicable. And if I am enthusiastic about anything, it's about exposing liars and frauds in medicine.
It's despicable. And if I am enthusiastic about anything, it's about exposing liars and frauds in medicine.
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